Mr John Foster > Spoor & Fisher > Pretoria, South Africa > Lawyer Profile

Mr John Foster

+ 27 21 673 4441 j.foster@spoor.com View profile View profile View profile View profile

Work Department

Trade Mark Enforcement

Position

John is a partner at Spoor & Fisher. He specialises in domestic and foreign trade mark prosecution and trade mark, copyright and unlawful competition litigation. This includes trade mark oppositions, trade mark and copyright infringement claims, domain name disputes and company and close corporation name objections. John has a keen interest in advertising law and has been involved in numerous litigious matters before various advertising regulatory bodies, in South Africa and various African countries. He regularly provides advertising pre-clearance advice to a number of multinational companies. John also deals with commercial IP transactions, licensing arrangements and due diligence investigations.

Career

John completed his Bachelor in Commerce (BCom) at the University of Stellenbosch in 2008 before going on to study his LLB, which he completed in 2010, winning a prize for the top student in the subject of Intellectual Property. John was admitted as an attorney of the High Court in 2013, after having served articles at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. and Spoor & Fisher as an Associate, John qualified as a Trade Mark Practitioner and, in 2015, was appointed to the position of Senior Associate. John was appointed as a Partner of Spoor & Fisher in March 2017.

Professional activities

Co-author of the chapter on Unlawful Competition in Dean & Dyer: Introduction to Intellectual Property Law (Oxford University Press), 2014. 

Co-author of the Sponsorship and Marketing Agreements chapter in International Business Transactions (Kluwerlaw), 2016 and 2018

Contributor to the Thomson Reuter IP Global Guide – South Africa, 2017.

Contributor to Lexology: Trade Marks Navigator, 2017.

Contributor to Trademarks in Getting the Deal Through, 2020.

Writer of numerous articles for industry publications, including Without Prejudice, World Trademark Review, and Business Law & Tax Review.

Guest lecturer IP LLM and IP short course: Stellenbosch University.

Regular speaker at industry conferences, seminars and tertiary institutions

Market Recognition

John is listed in the Managing Intellectual Property IP Stars Handbook 2017, 2020 – 2021 as a “rising star to watch”.

Listed in the WTR 1000 as one of the World’s Leading Trade Mark Professionals in 2019 – 2020. 

Languages

English, Afrikaans  

Memberships

Fellow of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL).

Member of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA).

Associate member of the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA).

Member of the International Trade Mark Association (INTA) and the INTA Judicial Administration and Litigation Subcommittee.

Member of the Legal Practice Council (LPC).

Education

BCom Law, LLB. (University of Stellenbosch). Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.

Leisure

John is a keen archer and avid hiker.